


More than Family

by Emirael



Category: Frozen (2013)
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Family, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, F/F, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-03-12
Updated: 2014-03-12
Packaged: 2018-01-15 11:16:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,202
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1302868
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Emirael/pseuds/Emirael
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Elsa was hoping the empty seat next to her would stay that way on the first day of classes, but when a redheaded girl with twin braids sits down next to her, she finds that she doesn't mind too much.</p>
            </blockquote>





	More than Family

Elsa and Kristoff had taken a pair of seats near the side of the lecture hall, about halfway up. On the one hand, it felt almost like cheating to sit with her twin brother on the first day of classes. Part of her felt she ought to be roughing it alone, in a different row, maybe. But, on the other hand, why sit alone when she could sit by him in relative security.

“It’s more crowded than I thought it would be,” Kristoff said as he got out his notebook. “You doing alright, Elsa?”

She nodded. “I’m okay. I wish we’d taken the morning block though. It’s probably much emptier than this.” She tried to repress a wave of anxiety as she gestured to the quickly-filling auditorium.

Kristoff patted her hand absently. “You could have signed up for the morning block.”

"Yeah, I guess…" She glanced to her left as a motion caught her eye. A redheaded girl with twin braids sat down in the seat next to her. Elsa stiffened at the stranger’s proximity, but relaxed slightly as the girl shot her a nervous smile.

“Hi,” she said. She glanced down at the notebook in front of Elsa, which had her name on it. “Elsa! Hello, Elsa.”

She managed a slight smile in return. “Hello there…” Her eyebrows raised as the girl quickly scrambled for a notebook and fumbled it onto the table, then scribbled something on the front. Elsa looked down and read: _Anna, Ahh-na._

“Anna,” she read. “Hello, Anna.” Despite herself, Elsa laughed lightly. She would have preferred the seat remained empty, but at least Anna seemed nice enough, if a bit quirky.

She smiled at the girl one more time before she turned back to Kristoff and sighed. “Yes I could swap, but if I took the morning block, then I wouldn’t have this class with you, Mr. Sleeps-til-noon-whenever-possible.”

He just chuckled. “I enjoy the finer pleasures in life. Sleep being chief among them.”

Elsa felt herself relaxing as Anna settled into the space beside her and she continued her familiar banter with Kristoff. The lecture hall was filling up, but it was her understanding that a noticeable portion would drop the class over the first few weeks of class, so it wouldn’t be this bad all semester.

A young man with auburn hair sat on the other side of Anna as Kristoff was telling Elsa a joke about their new apartment’s radiator. The new guy immediately struck up a conversation with the freckled girl and Elsa tugged on her braid as she tuned them out to tell Kristoff that, in all seriousness, they needed to get the radiator checked out.

The professor still hadn’t entered a couple minutes later when Elsa noticed Kristoff’s eyebrows narrow as he glanced over her shoulder. “What is it?” she asked softly. He wasn’t an especially tempestuous person, usually.

“I don’t like how that guy is talking to that Anna girl,” he murmured. “This is some pickup artist bullshit.”

Elsa felt vaguely guilty for having tuned them out so thoroughly and turned to face the front, opening her notebook to write down the name of the class as she started listening to the exchange going on to her left.

“—really are pretty. But you would look so much better if you let your hair down.” Hearing the guy’s tone made Elsa’s stomach turn. He was smooth, but something about him set her on edge.

“Um, thanks.” From the corner of her eye, she saw Anna tuck some hair behind her ear. “I really just like it better in braids for every day, though…”

“Yeah, but if you had reasons to get all dolled up, then I bet you’d look stunning.” Elsa glanced over in time to see the guy run a hand through his hair. He boasted an impressive pair of sideburns, and was wearing a broad grin. “So how about I give you some.” He winked and her mouth pulled into a grimace. “Some reasons, I mean. I’ll take you out this Friday and we can celebrate surviving the first week of classes.”

“Um, I’m really sorry, but I have other plans for Friday, actually…” Though she wasn’t familiar with Anna’s voice, Elsa could tell the other girl was anxious. She turned fully to her left and one of Anna’s braids bumped her arm. She nearly jumped as she realized how far back the other girl was leaning. The sideburns guy had moved deeply into her personal space and she was responding by shifting herself backward into Elsa’s.

“Hey, back off!” Elsa couldn’t help but jump a bit, fighting back anxiety as she put her hands on Anna’s shoulders to control the space between them. She fought her instinct to push the girl away, however. It had been an accident and, while Anna was the one who had invaded her space, she found herself leveling a glare at sideburns guy, who glanced at her in surprise.

His mouth hung open dumbly, and a prickling feeling told Elsa that no small amount of eyes were on them. The motions of people turning toward them flooded her peripheral vision. A blush flooded her cheeks as it occurred to Elsa that, although she’d shouted in alarm because of Anna’s surprising proximity (definitely too harshly), her shout could be easily misconstrued to have been directed at the sideburns asshole.

Anna threw a grateful look over her shoulder at Elsa. “Thanks, sister!” She could only blink as the redhead pulled out of her grasp and re-established herself as being mostly in her own chair.

“Sisters?” Sideburns guy raised an eyebrow, but had withdrawn to his own space.

“Huh? Uh, y-yeah,” Anna said. “She… is actually who I had plans with this Friday.”

He scoffed. “That’s the lamest excuse I have ever heard. You haven’t even talked to her since I sat down.”

Elsa still hadn’t quite processed the whole ‘sisters’ thing they were pretending at, but she forced herself to interject, cooly, “Because you haven’t given her a moment’s peace. She turned to the redhead and smiled as she saw the girl’s freckled cheeks lift in a relieved smile. “Has he, Anna?”

“No,” Anna said, sighing. “He hasn’t. Thank you for helping me, Elsa.”

“And my name is Hans,” said sideburns, laughing. “I can  _tell_  you’re not sisters. This is the flimsiest excuse I’ve ever heard. You just don’t think you can handle a date with a guy like me, do you, Anna?”

Elsa noticed the redhead twitch as Hans changed the ‘A’ in her name to the kind in ‘and’ and went on a hunch. “It’s Ahh-na,” she corrected. “She hates it when people mess up her name like that.”

The bright smile Anna flashed her told Elsa that her guess was right, or at least close enough. “Of course she’s my sister. The braids are a genetic family thing, probably. And how about our gorgeous blue eyes?”

A mild blush colored Elsa’s cheeks, but Hans didn’t seem to notice. Instead, he looked suddenly unsure of himself as he glanced around, too casually. A small audience in the rows above and below them had begun to listen in. Elsa thought she heard a girl place a $5 on whether or not they were lying.

“Fine, then who’s that guy behind her that she was talking to?” Hans said, leveling a suspicious stare at Anna.

Elsa blinked. “Kristoff?” Her twin placed a hand on her shoulder.

“Her boyfriend, duh,” Anna said without skipping a beat. “They just moved into an apartment together.”

She glanced back at Kristoff, too surprised to even blush. He looked at her with a blank expression that seemed to say, “You’re the one who rescued the redhead, Els. This one’s on you.”

 _“Help.”_  Elsa mouthed at him.

Leaning around her, Kristoff shot a glare at Hans. “Look, they’re sisters and they have plans on Friday. Leave them alone, douchenuts.”

Hans put his hands up disarmingly. “Hey, blondie, I’m not messing with your girlfriend.” Elsa winced. “I’m just verifying that I’m not getting lied to.”

Someone in the row above them laughed. “Yeah, there’s no way they’re sisters. Stop covering, dude. They didn’t even sit down together.”

Then someone in the row below them piped up. “Yeah, but I heard them talk a little, and they already knew one another’s names.”

Elsa resisted the urge to bury her face in her arms. The silly notebook thing was  _actually_  managing to corroborate their story. That she was dating her brother and sister to this stranger.

A few other people brought up various, sometimes contradictory information. Thankfully (?) it was the first day of classes and nobody knew anything about them. Like the fact that Elsa’s new ‘boyfriend’ was her brother.

Eventually, Kristoff interjected, “She doesn’t want to date you, Hans, isn’t that enough?”

“Just a couple questions!” Hans raised his hands disarmingly. “If you’re telling the truth, then you have nothing to lose. It’s not even  _about_  the date with the Pippi Longstocking wannabe anymore.” He rolled his eyes. Elsa grit her teeth as she noticed Anna hunch her shoulders and reflexively touch one of her red braids. “I just want to call your girlfriend and freckles here on their bluff.”

He shifted his focus to Elsa and smirked. “What are your Friday plans?” She glanced away nervously and her eyes darted away from everyone’s eyes on her. She did  _not_  like the amount of scrutiny she was receiving. She’d never done well with too may people watching her.

Attempting to be casual, she shrugged, but knew it looked jerky. “We were going out for coffee,” she said, more question than answer.

A sly smile came across Hans’ face. “And how does your ‘sister’ take her coffee?”

She opened her mouth, then completely blanked. “We’ve never gotten coffee together before,” she blurted, defaulting to a truth in panic. In an instant, she regretted not just saying her own coffee order or some other lie, but it hadn’t occurred to her. Whispers broke out and someone increased their bet.

Hans’ smirk was triumphant. “You’ve  _never_  had coffee with your sister before? Really? And just why would that be? Because you’re not  _actually_ sisters?”

Around them, people murmured and someone else bet $10 that she was lying as Hans continued his obnoxious questioning. They’d been doing so well until Elsa had messed everything up. She clasped her hands tightly in her lap and tried to keep her breathing in check. Why hadn’t class started? Was the professor late or dead or—

Anna slammed a hand on the table. “Look, Captain Sideburns of the S.S. Pubeface! Shut your mouth before more stupid falls out of it.” She slid a hand backward along the desk toward Elsa, who surprised herself as she reached out and held it without pause.

Then Anna’s voice dropped. “Elsa is my sister and I will  _not_  tolerate you harassing her any more than she tolerated you harassing me. It’s none of your fap-handed business, but we happen to have been adopted separately. We’ve spent our whole lives apart, but we got in contact and decided to attend the same university to actually get to know one another. So  _yeah_ , we’re a little bit awkward and  _no_ , we have not had coffee together ever.

“We wanted to get to know one another in person, so we haven’t talked much before now.  _No_ , I do not know her favorite color.  _No_ , I do not know her favorite meal or how she takes her coffee. But that doesn’t change that I love her and she loves me and there is no room for  _anybody_  in my life right now aside from the amazing woman sitting next to me. And there will _never_  be room in my life for an asshole like you.”

Elsa blinked. For a few moments, she had believed every word. As she wiped at watery eyes, ignoring the sounds of Hans picking up his stuff and leaving, she realized that part of her still believed it.

Anna turned back to face her, faintly flushed, and squeezed her hand. “I love you, sis,” she said earnestly.

“I love you too, Anna” Elsa said. Heat tinged her cheeks as they gazed at one another and she realized that some part of her believed that too, just a little.

She felt Kristoff behind her scoot back. She relaxed further as people began to look elsewhere and the pressure lifted. At some point, she’d moved her other hand to hold Anna’s and found that she didn’t feel like a stranger. At the bottom of the lecture hall, the professor seemed to have arrived and begun to teach, but Elsa couldn’t tear her eyes away from the cobalt ones in front of her, just a shade off from her own, but far more beautiful.

Something in her stirred, simultaneously sisterly and…. not. Her blush deepened.

“Coffee this Friday?” she asked, quietly.

Anna smiled and her eyes sparked, then darkened slightly. Elsa hadn’t realized that they’d leaned closer until she saw the other girl’s pupils dilate.

“Elsa,” she said, seeming to relish the name—as if she’d really waited all her life to say it, to know it. “Yes.”

**Author's Note:**

> This was super fun to write. Also I can’t do fluff, it turns into drama if I let it go over 800 words or something.
> 
> God I wish I could just keep writing this and write about how Elsa and Anna have to keep pretending to be sisters. And how the story goes like lightning across campus and they have to keep the act up even as they fall in not-sisterly love. And how everyone thinks Kristoff is dating his sister, but he’s pretty chill about it. And just everything about the intense meeting of two strangers who find a strange love between them, only half sisterly.
> 
> Alas this is a one-shot and I am an asshole. But really, it's that I have too many other projects but this idea wouldn't leave me alone. Maybe maybe I'll figure something out/write something else else in this AU eventually.


End file.
